8.4. Multiple relative clauses: zi'e

zi'e

ZIhE

relative clause joiner

Sometimes it is necessary or useful to attach more than one relative clause to a sumti. This is made possible in Lojban by the cmavo
zi'e (of selma'o ZIhE), which is used to join one or more relative clauses together into a single unit, thus making them apply to the same sumti. For example:

Example 8.38.

le

gerku

poi

blabi

zi'e

poi

batci

le

nanmu

cu

klama

The dog which is white and which bites the man goes.

The most usual translation of
zi'e in English is
“and”, but
zi'e is not really a logical connective: unlike most of the true logical connectives (which are explained in
Chapter 14), it cannot be converted into a logical connection between sentences.

It is perfectly correct to use
zi'e to connect relative clauses of different kinds:

Example 8.39.

le

gerku

poi

blabi

zi'e

noi

The

dog

that-is

(white)

and

incidentally-such-that

le

mi

pendo

cu

ponse

ke'a

cu

klama

(-

my

friend

owns

IT

)

goes.

The dog that is white, which my friend owns, is going.

In
Example 8.39, the restrictive clause
poi blabi specifies which dog is referred to, but the incidental clause
noi le mi pendo cu ponse is mere incidental information: the listener is supposed to already have identified the dog from the
poi blabi. Of course, the meaning (though not necessarily the emphasis) is the same if the incidental clause appears first.

It is also possible to connect relative phrases with
zi'e, or a relative phrase with a relative clause:

Example 8.40.

le

botpi

po

mi

zi'e

poi

blanu

cu

spofu

The

bottle

specific-to

me

and

which-is

blue

is-broken.

My blue bottle is broken.

Note that if the colloquial translation of
Example 8.40 were
“My bottle, which is blue, is broken”, then
noi rather than
poi would have been correct in the Lojban version, since that version of the English implies that you do not need to know the bottle is blue. As written,
Example 8.40 suggests that I probably have more than one bottle, and the one in question needs to be picked out as the blue one.

Example 8.41.

mi

ba

zutse

le

stizu

pe

I

[future]

sit-in

the

chair

associated-with

mi

zi'e

po

do

zi'e

poi

xunre

me

and

specific-to

you

and

which

is-red.

I will sit in my chair (really yours), the red one.

Example 8.41 illustrates that more than two relative phrases or clauses can be connected with
zi'e. It almost defies colloquial translation because of the very un-English contrast between
pe mi, implying that the chair is temporarily connected with me, and
po do, implying that the chair has a more permanent association with you. (Perhaps I am a guest in your house, in which case the chair would naturally be your property.)

Here is another example, mixing a relative phrase and two relative clauses, a restrictive one and a non-restrictive one: